The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - You're Wrong Mansbridge! The Weekend Special #65

Episode Date: June 18, 2021

Remember that old line, "I've never been wrong except that time I thought I was wrong but I was right."?  Well this isn't one of those times.  I was wrong and here's the proof on The Weekend Special #65

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. It is Friday. You're just moments away from the weekend special here on The Bridge. A can of pet food, where every ingredient matters. Some companies like to brag about their first ingredient, but the A Can of Pet Food team is proud of their entire bag. That's because every recipe has been thoughtfully sourced and carefully crafted with the highest quality ingredients, starting with quality animal ingredients, balanced with whole fruits and vegetables. Akana pet foods are rich in the protein and nutrients your dog or cat needs to feel and look their best. Available in grain-free, healthy grains, and singles for sensitive dogs. Akana, go's the Friday weekend special, number 65, since we started these. More than a year ago, obviously.

And it's the day of the week, well, it's certainly one of the days of the week that I enjoy very much. Because it's the opportunity to hear from you, get your letters and your thoughts, your comments, your questions, your ideas. And it gives me a sense of who you are, where you are, and what's on your mind. So you may recall about a week ago, I guess a little, maybe it was two weeks ago, I told the story of the Bellet Strait. I loved that story. We were talking about geography, and I got around to asking the question, where's the northernmost extremity of mainland America? So in other words, the tip of South America right through, if you were walking,

including across the Panama Canal, man-made, so it doesn't really count. If you started from the tip of South America and you ended up going all the way to the northern tip of North America, where would that be? Well, it would be at the Bellot Strait, which is a narrow strip of water between the Boothia Peninsula and, is it Somerset Island? I think so. Anyway, I said, you know, this is narrow. I've been there.

I've stood there. It's a very narrow little kind of channel. They call it a strait, the Bellet Strait, named after this French naval officer. And, you know, I said, very narrow. It's not like you couldn't get a tanker through there or you couldn't get a cruise ship through there. It'd be like a canoe.

And there probably only being a very few people in the history of the planet that have stood where I stood. Anyway, I was wrong. Not about the Bellet Strait or where it is or its significance, but saying that you only get a canoe through there. One of our trusted listeners, we've heard from him before,

Jeffrey Oliver, who we usually hear from as he's in the middle of the North Atlantic going back and forth across the ocean on his cargo ship. And he tunes in

to the podcast. Well, he just so happened to not only have been in the Bellet Strait on his big ship, but he took a picture too. And that's what you see on the cover art today on the podcast. That's his ship going through the Bellet Strait. And you can see what I mean by narrow. Anyway, he wrote, just listen to your segment on the Southern Ocean

and the Bellot Strait. In the segment, you said you might take a canoe through Bellot, but not a cruise ship or a tanker. Well, I thought I'd let you know. We go through there almost every summer when delivering fuel to arctic communities yes it is very tight lots of rocks and a strong current you have to time it right and it can be tricky but we do go through there and as a reminder our ship is i think it's 149 or 147 meters long, 23 meters wide.

The shore is a stone's throw on either side in parts. It's pretty wild. I bet. Anyways, as the resident seafarer, I thought I'd pipe up. All the best, Jeffrey Oliver, anchored in Loon Bay, Newfoundland. Sounds like a pretty neat place itself. So thank you, Jeffrey, pointing that out and sending the picture. It's a great picture. And you can see the Coast Guard vessel in front of them because they needed to be guided through that strip.

There's ice there almost year-round. And some summers you can't get through there because the ice that i know now frank hendrickson wrote again you may recall frank he's the guy you know i talked about supersonic jets eventually going to be used commercially, and one of the lines in it was, you know, you can leave London and arrive in New York in time to see the sun rise in the west. And I paused and I said, sunrise in the west?

I don't know, they must have got that wrong. Anyway, Frank has written a number of times now to try and explain why that is true so i'm gonna read i still don't understand it i'm pretty simple guy i'm just a like simple prairie guy. Not too sure of all these things, but Frank in Bainesville, Ontario. This is what he says in his latest explanation of how this works. Pay attention. You better write this down.

Reading my last so-called explanation again, it seems that I still didn't make things very clear so let me try again when you're sitting in your living room you're moving east at the earth's rotational speed of 1656 kilometers an hour and that's why the sun appears to rise in the east and set in the west while in reality the sun doesn't move at all we do now when we're flying in a regular jet we move at a little over a thousand kilometers an hour so if the jet is flying from east to west it means that the sun moves more slowly. 1,656 minus 1,000 equals 656. But it's still moving to the west. Okay, I'm with you up to there.

Imagine a jet that flies at exactly the same speed as the rotational speed of the Earth, 1,656 kilometers an hour. In that case, the sun would stay in exactly the same position during the entire flight. Got it? I hear you. However, a supersonic jet that flies at, say, 2,400 kilometers an hour actually flies fast enough that the sun would appear to move from west to east. In other words, a jet that takes off from London after sunset and flies at 2,400 kilometers an hour could arrive in New York well before sunset.

So its passengers would indeed see the sun rise in the west. I get it. You couldn't have made it more simple than that, Frank. I think you found the solution. I do understand that. However, now you have to write a PS. When you're flying from west to east, the opposite happens. The sun pops up over the horizon at an alarming speed.

You must have noticed that a few times. Yes, that's true. All right, Frank. You win Earth Rotational Speed Expert of the Day Award. Seriously, Frank, you have been diligent on this, and I think you just nailed it.

It's kind of scary, though, thinking of how fast things are moving when I'm sitting in my living room. I remember when I was a kid, I'm sure you did too, and they were trying to explain gravity, and I kept thinking, sitting there in the classroom, why aren't we like, you know, going up, like falling, falling up? Anyway, moving on, Bonnie McMillan writes, wondering if you and Bruce might tackle the sad state of disrepair of the official supposed home of Canada's Prime Minister

on one of your upcoming Wednesday podcasts. That's 24 Sussex Drive, of course. I would be very interested in your perspective as to why this house is now worse than dilapidated. Bonnie McMillan, White Rock, British Columbia. You know, I remember the day Justin Trudeau became prime minister because we were working on a documentary about that day. And we had him mic'd up.

And we had him mic'd up for like five hours. We got everything he said to everybody he met. In the five hours of that day, I think it was like June, or not June, November 5th or something like that of 2015. And the last thing we did together was we drove in the prime minister's limo from parliament hill, where he'd been doing some morning stuff to government house, where he was going to be sworn in.

So we drove there and kind of did an interview in the back of the, of the car. And then we had to find somewhere to stop that he could get out, meet the other members of his cabinet, and walk across the street to Rideau Hall, the residence of the Governor General, to be sworn in as Canada's new Prime Minister. And so where did the RCMP pick? They picked 24 Sussex Drive.

And we turned in there. I looked at him. I said, this must be weird for you. You know, you grew up in that house, and now it's like a shell. It's empty. And he said, I don't want to go in there the way it is. I'll live at one of those homes on the grounds of Rideau Hall.

And Canada will have to decide what it wants to do with that house. Obviously, it has a lot of memories for me. But I'm not getting involved in this discussion. And so it still sits there. And Canadians can't decide what to do with a piece of Canadian heritage I don't know it's loopy every once in a while these things that get caught up in political hassles

about money obviously I just like come on get real okay Okay, moving on. Terrell Bertram. Good day, Mr. Mansbridge. My name is Terrell Bertram, and I'm writing to you from Climax, Saskatchewan, right in the southwest corner of the province. First off, I so look forward to your weekly conversation

with Bruce on Smoke, Mirrors, and the Truth. I truly enjoy your conversations about radishes or the banter back and forth between the two of you. It really is like two old friends having a conversation and the listeners just get to be virtual flies on the wall. Something that was not possible with the National and

the old Ad Issue panel, so thank you for that. That's true, we just never have the time to talk like that, but we do have fun on Smoke Marys and the Truth. And we wish Bruce luck with his radishes. Second of all, in terms of the turmoil in the Green Party, Bruce brought up an interesting point about the NDP doing well in the next election, like what happened in 2011. I was

wondering if an orange wave could take place with a liberal majority government like what happened in 2011 with the Conservatives. Or is there simply not enough centre-left vote to make that a possibility? It's a good question. I'll ask Bruce next week. Everything depends on what happens to the Conservative vote, right?

And to a degree, the Green Party vote as to whether that could happen for the NDP. But the latest data that was out, including the one from Bruce's firm, Abacus data this week, shows the NDP doing extremely well. I mean, I think they're into mean, I think that last survey showed them into the 20-point range. They're at the bottom of the 20s, the Conservatives are at the top of the 20s, and the Liberals are in the mid-30s. But there is no election right now. Nothing focuses the mind like a hanging. Brian Mulroney used to say, but what he meant,

what he used it as an example of, is nothing focuses the mind like an actual election. When you have to make the decision, that's when things start to happen. Terrell also mentioned the problems that enemy Paul is having as leader of the Green Party and wonders aloud whether some of that is the fact that Elizabeth May, the former leader, is still in the caucus and Annemie Paul is not. And I think that

may well have something to do with it. But she seems to have dodged the so-called bullet with calls for a new leadership convention just in the last few days. So we'll see what happens there. We'll keep an eye on it. Dennis O'Sullivan writes from Streetsville, Ontario. Peter, you were asking for feedback after your discussion with Goldie Heider. I was the president of the Retail Council of Canada about the reopening of the U.S. border. I agree with him.

Many Canadians are clutching to a misplaced sense of pride in wanting to keep tourists and other foreign non-essential people out until everything's perfect. Perfect may be a long time coming. Too long a time coming for so many tourist-dependent businesses in Canada to survive, along with a huge number of jobs that go with them. The idea of restricting access to those with full immunization or partial immunization coupled with a negative COVID test makes sense.

I have friends and see many remarks on social media from Canadians on the subject, scolding Americans in particular for their uneven and irresponsible strategy in dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak. But we need to be logical, not emotional. When somebody who wants to come to Canada to enjoy our country and spend his or her money comes knocking on our door, it is that person we're interested in, not their neighbors or governor.

If that person provides proof of full vaccination, then it is a safe bet. He goes on. In other areas still on this theme. One other aspect for safe and enjoyable travel would be for Canada customs officers to provide a traveler entering the country with a COVID advisory, a printed list of regions with current limitations in effect, such as retail closures, restaurant closures, and the like, plus mask requirements. Yikes, talk about a whole other level of bureaucracy. They'll have to redo that every day because provinces keep changing on different issues. However, Dennis has an answer for that.

Even if the lists had to be produced each day, it would not be too onerous. I'm sure all border crossings have computers and photocopiers. Yeah, you may be right, Dennis. I don't know. But thanks for the note. Peter Andre writes from Sarnia. Letter for Friday, but a question for your Monday doctors.

Just booked a transatlantic cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Southampton, England, which includes stops in Morocco, Spain, and Portugal for 16 days. Fly Toronto to Fort Lauderdale, Southampton to Toronto. What do you think? March 2022. Good luck with that. I don't know.

You know, some cruises have started again already. Canada's no cruise ships this year. You know, I'm hoping, we're all hoping, we're going to be living in a much, much, much different world by next March. I know my sister loves cruises and she's, she's, she's booking. She wants to go on cruises. I, I don't know. I, I was, you know, if none of this had happened, I was going to be on a cruise actually right now from

Singapore to Dubai was a long, you know, a month or six-week cruise. And I was looking forward to it because that's where, you know, I grew up as a kid in that area. But it didn't happen. And you know what? I haven't rebooked. At least not yet. Howard Gull writes from Kitchener, I'm grateful today for your probing and detailed interview with Minister Anand.

That was the other day. Anita Anand, the Minister of Public Service and Procurement, responsible for buying vaccines, right? It was fun to hear you repeat a query she had cleverly avoided in her first answer. Not having heard her before, I was impressed with her sharp intellect, insightful answers, and descriptive elucidations regarding procurement, past, present, and going forward.

Isn't it great to be a Canadian and to be lucky enough to have no BS people like her willing to serve. Yeah, well, there are a few BS people who are willing to serve, let me tell you. Thanks for the quality podcast you continue to deliver daily. We actually had quite a few emails about Anita Anand. And I think like 99% of them were positive.

There was some stuff on social media as usual, you know, anonymous or, you know, some name with three followers. Ranting clearly had never heard the podcast at all, had no idea what had been said, but had already made up their mind. Anyway, I thought the minister was pretty forthcoming in her answers. Mike Gibbons writes from Ottawa, just wondering if you've seen any correlation between vaccine hesitancy and voter turnout.

Wow, that's quite a question. Thanks for all the great work on the bridge and good talk, loving both of them and the ability to listen on SiriusXM. Glad, glad you're listening. And, you know, both the bridge on its, you know, next week is our last week of Monday to Friday for a while. It's going to take a little brief summer hiatus, be back when and if the election is called in early August or mid-August.

And the same with Good Talk. It's on its hiatus now. So Chantel and Bruce will be joining us for Good Talk. Co-relation between vaccine hesitancy and voter turnout i'll have to think about that one for a while i'll i'll certainly ask bruce uh whether he sees anything on that front um jesse right from mackenzie british columbia following your discussion with bruce yesterday around the potential late summer election call i have a thought that keeps popping up i heard years ago that an mp gets a full pension after

six years this could be wrong information no it's right which would mean that the whole crop of new mps that came to ottawa with theals in 2015 are approaching that milestone, October 26, if my memory serves me correctly. As such, if there is a late summer election call for a September election, that would leave all these MPs one month short of a full pension, if they lost that is. That seems like it would be an issue that the caucus would have in calling an election early, especially when they do not have to and have a choice in when to call it. They may be so confident they will win that it's not an issue, but being so close to a full pension and missing it by one month seems to me to be an issue as well. Love the podcast as always, Jesse Wright, McKenzie, BC.

Okay, first of all, you're right about the pension issue. You're also right about the fact it has been an issue in some of the caucus meetings, from what I understand, in the last couple of months by some MPs who don't want to take that risk of losing their pension by calling an election a month before it's due. I wouldn't want to see any of them try to make that an election issue. That won't fly with the public. But listen, the caucus doesn't make a decision on when the election is going to be called. The prime minister makes that decision.

And he'll do what he does and when he does it. You know, if you look at the polling data, research data right now, things look pretty good for the liberals. But the old Harold Wilson quote, the former British prime minister, a week in politics is a long time. And it is. Anything can happen. Things can change.

And they may well change. But the pension issue is one that's interesting. And keep it in mind, you could also use it to campaign to your advantage. I could have, you know, I could have been guaranteed a pension if I'd stayed a month longer for an election. But that's not what's important here. What's important is the future of Canada and the people and how we've handled the pandemic and what our plans are to continue as we move into a recovery

phase. That's what's important. That's what we care about. We don't care about pensions. Hey, I should be out there, man. Yeah, you can write this stuff. It's easy, right? Mary Ellen Kell from Oakville.

Peter, thank you so much for asking Anita Anand to join you for a conversation on procurement for COVID-19 and other issues. By the way, Anita Anand is the MP for Oakville. It was a privilege to listen to Ms. Anand in her capacity as Procurement Minister for Canada and to your conversation with her. We're also so fortunate to have such an experienced and hardworking person working as an MP,

and especially in the challenging COVID-19 era. While Ms. Anand is the MP for my mother and some friends, I've not had that chance to listen to her at length and will make a point of doing so in the future. My hope for the country is that she continues as MP for years to come. Thank you again. I've saved this podcast along with the second dose podcast

with Dr. Isaac Bogoch, which I shared with a few friends before they and I went for our second doses. That was a great podcast. I think that was a week ago, Monday. A lot of reaction to that. Have a good summer. Look forward to more of the bridge and good talk when they resume. And they will.

We're here all next week, though, so we'll make a point of using that time. Well, Derval Sassetti writes from, wait for it, Brazil. Very impressed and jealous after listening to your interview with the Minister of Procurement, who sounds extremely competent indeed. Now, please allow me to fact check her a little bit. She said hyperbolically that all countries were trying to order vaccines from multiple companies back in August. Yes, that's what she said. And you're right.

It was hyperbolic. Same way you'd say. Everything. Everything's breaking my way. hyperbolic. Same way you'd say everything. Everything's breaking my way. Well, you don't mean literally everything. Anyway, as Durval says, let me correct that. Not only Brazil was not trying,

but the imbecile who runs this country was actively ignoring several proposals directly made by Pfizer as it was recently discovered by a congressional inquiry about the country's failed response to COVID. Brazil's had a brutal time. And its leader, President Bolsonaro, he's the head of the Social Liberal Party in Brazil, which makes it sound like he's a progressive, right?

No, he's like a clone of Trump's. So the minister should have said, all countries except those run by moronic proto-dictators, okay? Until late last year, that individual was actually spreading fake news about vaccines, telling his followers that Pfizer wanted to have legal immunity about potential side effects. So if you end up like a crocodile or if your wife grows a beard, it's your problem. True story. That's what he said. Well, Duval goes on and on about Bolsonaro

and I bet I would too if I lived there anyway it's great to hear from members of our worldwide audience here at the bridge got a note from

Jill Lees and Christy Hummel they're in the kind of Burlington Brantford area of Ontario and they write we have a couple of questions for you to ask the experts can they debunk the myths going around about the vaccine affecting fertility yeah that debunk it and put that one in the fireplace that's nuts now your second question is i like this one we'll ask christy received her second dose way back in february because she's a ps, which she's so grateful for. But we are wondering if she will need a booster shot sooner than later.

That's a good question. I'll ask that. I'll ask that on Monday. Getting down to the last couple, so let's take our break right now. If I can figure out the right button. Here it is. And welcome back. This is The Bridge for Friday.

It's the weekend special, number 65. You're listening on, well, you're listening on one of a number of ways. You could be listening on SiriusXM, Canada, Channel 167, Canada Talks, or you may have just simply downloaded the weekend special from the bridge on your favorite podcast platform. Either way, thank you. Here's the last couple of letters. Tobiah Goldstein from Lethbridge, Alberta.

I've been listening to your podcast since the start of the pandemic and wanted to thank you for being a place to have an informed, ongoing discussion about COVID. At the start of all this, there was a lot of fear and uncertainty and it was overwhelming. At first, I appreciated hearing a familiar voice, one that I recognized from your years hosting The National. As things went along, your daily show has become part of my day. Although I haven't written in before, I have felt like part of the discussion the whole time. I know many Canadians feel the same way.

Thank you, Tobiah. The pandemic has flipped our family life upside down. At first, the thought of our three children spending the rest of the school year online was shocking. My wife and I both work from home, so in some ways this was a transition that worked well. But we soon discovered how much extra help they needed with this new paradigm of online learning. As Alberta relaxed restrictions during last summer and committed to sending kids back to the classroom without much of a plan to keep them truly safe, we decided to pull them out completely and homeschool. Now at the end of the school year and three of the five people in our family are vaccinated, we look again towards September and wonder what school will look like.

Even though both of us have a background in education, we've struggled to manage meeting all the learning outcomes as well as our daily work. I think a lot of parents like us are burned out and ready for our kids to get back to a regular healthy routine with other kids, teachers, and extracurriculars like swimming and scouts. Our kids have done virtual scouting and swimming off and on throughout the past year. Despite good effort and innovation, some things are less meaningful and interesting on a screen. The active cases are low in our city right now,

and we have been letting our kids play in the evenings at playgrounds again. Seeing them run around playing tag and enjoying outdoor play again after a hard winter has been great we do have some misgivings about sending the two younger ones back in september and hope the situation in september will be safer it seems like the highest rate of hospitalization right now is in the unvaccinated and the 12 and under set yes that, that's pretty clear. It's pretty amazing when you consider that more than three-quarters of Canadians have received at least one shot, and that's three-quarters of Canadians over the age of 12,

because 12 and under haven't been allowed to have the shot yet. With so many unknowns in the past year and a half, I've relied on the steady fact-based dialogue that you have maintained with all of us. I hope you have a great summer and get to enjoy some travel and family time. And to you too, Tobiah, we're all hoping for that. Appreciate the nice comments. I think there are a lot of journalists and former journalists like myself who are trying to stay to fact-based areas on this discussion. It's hard sometimes because there's so much garbage out there.

Sometimes you get sucked in by it. Susan Janke from Waterloo. I thought I was going to read Susan's letter last. Let me just see. Actually, I am going to read the last. So before I read it, I'll read this other one first. Alina Montes from Terrebonne, Quebec. Never had a tangible reason to write before Although almost did when Radish Boy had me giggling for hours Funny guy, isn't he? Anyways, it's the usual

Watched you forever, miss you on the CBC And grateful for the bridge Thank you, thank you, thank you And I'm still on the CBC It's not often Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I'm still on the CBC. It's not often, a couple of times a year with a documentary, and my next documentary is up on September 10th, so mark that on your calendar. I think it's at 9 o'clock at night.

September 10th being the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9-11, so you can guess what the topic's going to be about. Anyway, Alina's question is, did anything ever come out of Justin Trudeau's study on taxing religious institutions? If I'm not mistaken, it was going under review at the Senate level in 2018. Would love your take on it, and Bruce's as well. As an ex-Catholic, I would support said taxation. Sending over 30 years of applause and respect, and yep, wholehearted admiration. That's very kind of you, Alina.

Thank you so much for that. You know, I didn't read your letter till this morning. So I was getting ready for this. And, you know, I don't know the answer. I tried to find the answer. I wrote to my favorite source on all things Parliament Hill. And he didn't know either. He's going to find out. So eventually I will get this answer out there.

But I don't know. You're quite right. There was a lot of fuss made about it at the time it went under review and then kind of haven't heard since then what, if anything has happened, if it's like most things that got kind of shuffled off to the side, but we'll see. I'll check it out. All right. Susan, Susan Janky's note. Oh, sorry. It's not Janky. It's Janky. All right.

It's spelled Jan, but it's John. So Janky. Susan Janky. All right, we've said enough about Susan and that she's from Waterloo. Let's get what her note is about. Because this, too, refers to something we did a week or ten days ago. Love your podcast. Indeed, I'm learning a lot.

Pizza vending machines. Remember that? We talked about it in Rome. How, like, bizarre. In Rome, in Italy, they had vending machines that cooked a pizza in three minutes and popped it out. And I said, this is, God, let's hope it doesn't go anywhere. Well, Susan writes pizza vending machines, guess what? Port Carling, Ontario has that very same machine We tried the pizza last fall

When we were visiting our friends who have a cottage on Lake Russo The pizza was quite decent Of course, it can't compare to the real Italian pizza But it made a good lunch for us We thought, only in Port Carling, but clearly Italy is in the game too. Enjoy the weekend, Susan. Who knew? Listen, if it's in Port Carling, they've got to be elsewhere as well.

Somewhere out there. Well, there we are. Another weekend of the weekend special hope you enjoyed it looking forward to next week once again next week's the last full week of the bridge before we go on hiatus for i don't know how long it'll be a few weeks maybe a month we'll still do once a week on wednesdays radish boy will be in with us from wherever he may be and wherever I may be. That's the beauty of these things. You can do them from anywhere in the world.

And that's what we'll do. We'll stay connected for the summer. And if, in fact, the election is called, when we think it's going to be called sometime in the middle of August, we'll be back on a nightly. It will be your place to listen to the election. Got some special plans for how that's going to unfold nightly during the whatever 30, 35 days

of an election campaign. So I'm Peter Mansbridge. This has been the Bridge episode weekend special number 65. Have a great weekend. Stay safe. Stay well. Be kind.

And we'll talk again on Monday. Thank you.